M.Ing. (Electrical And Electronic) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Ing. (Electrical & Electronic Engineering) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters of Business Administration, Durban University of Technology, 2008. / Industrial buying stands for more than half the whole economic activity in industrialised countries. Therefore, it is important to understand how customers of Afrox perform buying activities. The fabrication industry is a fast growing industry and is, therefore, interesting to study. The understanding of the buying behaviour of industrial organisations is of paramount importance to the industrial marketer. The study is a quantitative, cross sectional and descriptive investigation into buyer behaviour in the fabrication industry of Afrox. It highlights that industrial buyer behaviour has an extensive area, both for the practical marketer as well as from an academic perspective. As the fabrication industry is once again expanding, it is of essence to understand the buying behaviour in this industry. This report has the intention of highlighting how industrial buyer behaviour can be described in the fabrication industry. The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate the characteristics of industrial buying behaviour of fabrication customers at Afrox. The purpose has been further developed in forms of research questions dealing with the buying process, buyer behaviour, buying centre and buyer choice criteria. The sample studied is from a current company data base. With regard to the buying process, the most significant factors are price, quality, and technical capability.

Good welding research requires accurate control of the variables involved,to achieve consistent results. The variables involved in arc welding are of the dependent and independent type. Control of the independent variables such as arc current, arc voltage and welding velocity is necessary to control the independent variables such as penetration, electrode consumption rate, etc. The purpose of this thesis was to design, develop and test an automatic welding machine which controlled the above variables within the limits required for welding research.